April 2, 2001 The Lion's Eye Page 5 Anteia Consorto Basement floor of Classroom building, pipes containing electrical wires surrounded by water. Classroom building fails By ANTEIA CONSORTO Editor-in-chief How would you like to have a waterfall in your basement? Our classroom building has a waterfall in the basement every time it rains. : For those of you who don't know, our classroom building is falling apart. The building is only approximately three years old, and already the walls are cracking and leaking. "We have been trying to get this building repaired for a long time. There are cracks in the walls and the walls leak. This is not the kind of construction Penn State should expect. We have worked to correct this problem, but no actions have been taken. The walls still leak and the cracks still exist," said Dr. Edward Tomezsko, cam- pus CEO. On March 21 the classroom building com- puters were shut down due to the weather. The rainwater was pouring in through the walls in the basement and seeping through the floors. This water surrounded electri- cal wires and the computer connections. This problem has been noted many times before and the campus has contacted the proper authorities. However, in a letter dated Feb. 16, Thomas Rados, asst. director of the Bureau of Engineering and Architecture, stated "we feel that the proper course of action, at this time, is to watch and wait." The letter also recommended that the University monitor the cracks, the crack in the red room on the second floor is now measured to be approximately eight feet long. "All I can say is that right now we are scheduling a meeting for April with all parties involved to review the entire situa- tion," said Michael Peapos, Bureau of Construction. For now, the campus is forced to clean up the water as it pours in, and con- tinue to monitor the cracks in the various locations throughout the building. Anteia Consorto Crack in wall of an upstairs office Anteia Consorto Electrical box in basement dripping with water as the rain pours in from the wall behind the box Markley gets an “A” By ADAM WOJCIECHOWICZ Staff Writer : On occasion, a student will have the odd, even at times puzzling luck to have his or her educational path cross with a college instructor who subverts the assumptions about what such a person ~ should be, placed at the head of a class- room: a towering intellectual, dwarfing them, distant from the humanity of student life like a wise old campus demigod. Save for the senior citizen status and most likely the divinity as well, Dr. Amold Markley fits this description - although he hides it superbly. "Dr. Markley speaks to you in a way that puts you right on his level; he never talks down to you. By putting things in certain words, it's very supportive, rather than an attempt to construct you," said Stacy Lawrence, a senior English major here at Delco who has come to greatly admire Markley. "In fact, it makes you feel better about your work and builds up self esteem and confidence in it... I wanted him to feel like I was a good enough student." Comments like these are not difficult to come across among Markley's students, from both past and present. : Lawrence notes further, "he's always interested in your life as a student, and willing to help in any way he possibly can - even after you've moved on." Markley has undoubtedly earned a great deal of respect in the eyes of his pupils, and now, as well as the eyes of the university. This has recently been attested to in his receiving the 2001 Atherton Award, which banked heavily upon the claims of his supporters. Every year, Pennsylvania State University acknowledges its pivotal and high-achieving faculty members through a. number of varied awards. Markley has stepped into a prestigious spotlight this spring as a recipient of the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching. Created in 1989 and named for Penn State's seventh president, the Atherton Award recognizes an instructor with a spe- cial talent for teaching undergraduate stu- dents. The selection board looks for a unique devotion at this level. Given to no more than four members of the PSU faculty at all locations around the state, Markley's nomination has withstood stiff competition; he shares it with just three other PSU teachers, two hailing from main campus and one other from a fellow satellite. "It's been amazing," said Markley, reflecting on the entire process leading up this achievement. "It was very encouraging and wonderful to be so supported; [the Delco staff] has put so much energy into it.... It just feels like a big team effort." Markley's mentoring professor on cam- pus, Dr. Adam Sorkin, made the original nomination back in December 2000. "It meant a lot to be nominated by a col- league, especially my mentor," said Markley. After the initial steps, a nominee pro- ceeds to create a teaching dossier, present- ed in time to the award commission. Because of the nature of the award, focused on an inspired as well as inspiring educator of undergraduates, the bulk of the dossier consisted of letters of support from both Markley's colleagues and students. "People write such wonderful letters.... More than anything, you try to emphasize [that fact]," said Markley, visibly moved by the support he has received. "[It's] very humbling. It makes me feel grateful to the students." The dossier also included the nominee's personal philosophy about teaching - in a sense, the soil from which sprung such a strong support network on the Delco cam- pus. "My greatest responsibility as a teacher is to awaken my students to the excitement of learning," reads the very first line of Markley's philosophy. In precise response happen to be the words of another student, freshman Kathy Smith: "The class was never boring. It was weird, because I actually wanted to go to class - and I usually never want to go to class!" "In all of the courses I teach, I am com- mitted to finding new ways to engage my students," said Markley in his philosophy profile, later adding the reality that "ten years from now, my students may not remember much of what they learned in my courses, but a new habit that they start- ed may have helped them immeasurably in that interval." The means to this end range from in-class acting out dramas and recita- tions of poetry, to class critiques of Markley's own writing and in-person eval- uations of a student's paper. "It was an exciting and yet a very per- sonal learning experience.... He's infor- mal, but intellectually stimulating at the same time," said Cathy Nyugen, a fresh- man. But more simply put: "he's just fabu- lous," said freshman Nelson James, also a friend and student of Markley. Markley became a member of the staff here at Delco in 1996, as an English instructor. He has since risen to the posi- tion of Assistant Professor of English for the campus, as well as coordinator of the Honors Program at Delco. Markley received his initial B.A. from Guilford College, and later went on to obtain an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. : Both inside and outside the school envi- ronment, Markley is a distinguished schol- ar on Romantic, Victorian, Renaissance, and 19th century British literature. In par- ticular, he studies the work of Mary Shelly, on whom he is currently editing a book of many previously unreleased manuscripts, to be published in 2002. The topic of Markley's studies of Mary Shelly are very dear to him, and he was - recently featured in an article published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, exploring his deep rooted enthusiasm and knowledge of the famed early 19th century writer. Despite his worldliness, Markley still feels that he can "really appreciate being on a small campus," particularly because of the . overwhelming support he has been received in the community. "It's really heartwarming to feel that your students care, because you want real- ly badly to be a good teacher, but you want your students to like you as well," he notes. "It's very uplifting.... When the people that you help learn, and then thank you for it - it feels like you're actually succeeding." "As a teacher I have the responsibili- ty to serve as a model for students in apply- ing what they gain from their studies and their research to their lives in the world," said Markley. It is the opinion of so many students here, including this writer, that because of this unique sense of personal responsibility and generosity, Markley is a true friend to students, before he is anything else. World-reknown poet visits PSU Delco for Women's History Month By ANTHONY KOZLOWSKI JR. Assistant editor For those of you who do not know, March is dedicat- ed as Women's History Month. The celebration of this month is a chance for all of us to reflect on women, the struggles they have endured and the contributions they have made to society. Due to Penn State's commitment to those who have spent their lives working to make our lives easier, here at our campus there were many events going on to help us understand the .impor- tance of women in society. One such event took place on March 1, 2001 at Penn State-Delco. Carolyn Wright, a well known poet and transla- tor spoke to a group of students about her life and how she feels she has contributed to society. There was also about thirty min- utes dedicated to listening to her poems and discussing them. As she stood in the front of the classroom, one could not help but give her their undivided attention. There was such a pres- ence about her. As she paced back and forth, sipping on her coffee, those in attendance had to be careful not to be blinded by the radiant streaks coming from her direction. She was a friendly, personable women, who decided to wear extremely bright clothing to keep the audience's attention. Luckily, a few students had sunglasses handy, or else they probably would have missed a few days of school. ; Not only was her clothing bright, but she was as well. Listening to her poetry, one could tell she has experienced a great deal in her life. Wright's poetry which had a wide range of subjects, told of encounter's from her traveling and working as an educator. Wright has spent most of her life traveling the globe and trying to make a difference for all people. She was in Calcutta from 1986-1988 working on the Indo-American Fellowship for Advanced Research, where she collected and translated the work of Bengali women writers and poets. Then from 1989-1991 she was in Dhaka on a Fulbright Senoir Research Fellowship, to complete her translation project with the work of Bangladeshi women. For this phenomenal work she was given the award for Outstanding Translation from the American Literary Translators’ Association in 1994. Along with the work Wright does with translations, she also spends a great deal of time writing poetry. Her poems cover such issues as things she has observed while teaching, women's rights issues as well as cultural issues. She has five books of her own poems published. For these works she has been awarded many distinctions including the Witter Bynner Foundation Grant in Poetry in 1989 and also the 1996 NEA Grant in Translation. Although she has a hectic schedule, she still finds time to be a Fellow of the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College. She has held research appointments with the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University, the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women and the Asian Studies Program at Emory University. In addition to all these things she has also spent several years teaching throughout the world. When asked about the work she does and her moti- vation she simply replied, " I use my poetry as a way to resolve personal issues." This response speaks volumes because she has devoted her life to issues we face on a daily basis and has contributed a great deal to society and women in particular and in return she expects nothing.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers